Media Muppets: Benteke is off to Manchester United and National Newspapers Pick on Little Girls

‘There’s no quality control when you need content for advertising clicks’

It’s getting to the point where you only have to wait a week for the last Benteke transfer rumours to die down, before a new one starts. When Benteke handed his transfer request in, then granted it was open season for press rumours and made-up stories, but then Benteke signed a new contract with Villa. A few days passed, then Spurs the team who the player a few days previously prime for (if they wanted or could afford him), were suddenly being linked again to him. A week or so passed, then it was Arsenal’s turn to be after him. Wenger had signed anybody at that point, so maybe Benteke was on his list? Nope. A week ago, the transfer window slammed shut. Does this stop the media firing up the Benteke transfer rumour stories – hell no!

In other news – are teenage girls getting excited on Twitter about their beloved popstar worthy of having their tweets interpreted literally and then farmed out as headline news? Apparently so…

Alan Nixon of The Daily Mirror – flogging the eternal dead horse that is the Benteke transfer rumour

‘Manchester United eye Christian Benteke transfer as Moyes looks for his future muscleman – David Moyes knows he may well lose Rooney in the future and Benteke would replace his power up front…Moyes made a personal check on Benteke, 22, on Friday against Scotland…Benteke is an option in the next couple of windows and would even be eligible for Europe if United plunge in January.’

1. Slow news day, lets rehash and combine the Rooney and Benteke transfer stories from the summer. United aren’t going to lose Rooney in the near future. If he was going to go, he’d have gone this summer, and not the January window. Same with Mr Benteke.

2. Benteke replacing Rooney’s power? They’ve used the word ‘power’ to try to blatantly make the two players comparable. Power is hardly the first word you’d use to describe Rooney. It’s hardly a like-for-like replacement. They both score goals and are good players – that’s about as far as the comparison goes.

3. So, Moyes was at a Scotland game and Benteke played in it. Oh, of course Moyes wants to sign Benteke then! Come on…Moyes is Scottish and there’s also the fact his new £27.5 million signing Felliani was playing in the game. You know, he might have wanted to check up on him. Also, every player in the ‘hot right now’ Belgium team is worth a look at, if you’re the manager of United.

4. Considering how United flapped around in the summer transfer window, they’re hardly be likely to be able to prise Benteke from Villa’s hands in January.

5. ‘Benteke is an option in the next couple of windows’. What is this? Forward-planning in rumour mill articles? Is this so the Mirror can say, in a year or so’s time, ‘we brought you the Benteke transfer story first!’ Why not just cover all bases and just write, ‘while Benteke remains a footballer, he’s an option for United’?

6. Come on…at least wait until next summer with the Benteke transfer rumours.

Media Muppet score:9/10

The Metro newspaper messes up headline in a rush to rehash the Daily Mirror story – ‘Manchester United target Christian Benteke as Aston Villa brace themselves for Aston Villa bid’ (sic)

‘…United boss David Moyes sees him as a future leader of the line, especially knowing 30-year-old Robin van Persie cannot go on forever.’

1. Nice headline. Great subbing. What does it mean? That United don’t have a chance with Benteke as Aston Villa are going to bid for their own player first?

3. The story is directly taken from the Daily Mirror. The lazy journalism guess work story was copied by numerous media outlets – it seems there’s no quality control when you need content for advertising clicks.

4. Don’t RT these stories, as this is part of the why media run them in the first place, to get you to spread them, so they can earn £££.

Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor was the subject of death threats and shocking abuse from One Direction fans after injuring band member Louis Tomlinson… over-excited fans took to Twitter to send Agbonlahor abuse and threats – even though the account in question appears to be a fake.

Now, this story went everywhere, as Twitter nonsense seems to officially be ‘news’ nowadays. It’s undeniably a funny situation of two worlds colliding – prepubescent popstar groupies take on football supporters. Yet, maybe national newspapers should take more responsible in how they run such stories?

1. These death threats weren’t actually sent to Gabby, as he doesn’t have a Twitter account. The account they were sent to ‘appears to be fake’, wrote the newspaper. Of course, it’s fake, any fool could spot that in a second, but hey, lets not let that get in the way of a story, so we’ll write ‘appears to be fake’.

2. Instead of taking a more comedic line to the story, they’ve delivered the story with a straight bat. With such a tone, it’s now not really news worthy of a national newspaper. With a knowing wink, it can run anywhere – even on MOMS.

3. Interestingly, the Daily Mirror newspaper and some others, published the Twitter addresses of all the young girls and their quotes. Quoting them is fine, but do they really need to hang these girls out to dry considering their age? They wouldn’t be allowed to publish a minor’s phone number or address. Is there any wonder that these girl’s Twitter accounts soon disappeared – possibility due to the amount of abuse (or worse) the girls would have received from football fans (or worse!).

4. Yes, these girls had tweeted some stupid things, but that’s all it was. Kid’s stuff. If these comments were made in a One Direction forum or chatroom, the media wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. Yet, because it’s on Twitter, suddenly, it’s newsworthy.

5. Newspapers are increasingly desensitising its readers. If silly teenage girl tweets are now viewed as headline news death threats, will readers now take seriously proper death threats?

Media Muppet score:8/10

If you’ve spotted an article that is just lazy journalism, or worse, then leave the link in the comments below or send it to us via twitter @oldmansaid.

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My Old Man Said (MOMS) is an award-winning football blog & podcast. MOMS is also on the National Council of the Football Supporters Federation (FSF) and has been to Parliament, the Premier League offices and beyond in addressing supporter issues. UTV

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